


My Boy

by Ice_Cold_Orchid



Category: Among Us (Video Game)
Genre: Angst?, Blood and Injury, Cannibalism, Character Death, Conspiracy Theories, Father-Son Relationship, Gen, Human Impostor(s) (Among Us), Non-Consensual Body Modification, Survival Horror, The Skeld (Among Us), Took 5 lines said as a joke in a stream and my brain ran away with them
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-22
Updated: 2021-01-22
Packaged: 2021-03-14 10:16:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,971
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28918944
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ice_Cold_Orchid/pseuds/Ice_Cold_Orchid
Summary: Losing a loved one is tough for anybody. There is nothing else in this universe that can fully match the pain that comes with the death of someone you hold near and dear to your heart. Someone like your child.Just a few moments ago, Purple had everything he needed in his life: a loving husband, a handsome son who was already becoming his own man, and a job that promised adventure across the galaxy...Well, maybe just the first two thingsBut when Purple watches his son get launched out the airlock, all bets are off. A normal dad might cry and grieve the loss of their child. Or he might get angry at the cruelty of life and become bitter.Too bad Purple isn't a normal father.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 13





	My Boy

“YOU CAN’T DO THIS! HE’S MY SON!”

“DAD! DAD! DON’T LET THEM DO THIS! TELL THEM WHAT REALLY HAPPENED! TELL THEM IT WASN’T-”

Fwoosh

“AAAAAAAAAAUUUUUGHHHhhhhhhhhh...….” 

Purple fell slack against the wall, forcing White and Cyan to shift their grip. Rather than holding their struggling friend’s shoulders back against the wall, they now tightened their hold around his arms to support the heartbroken crewmate. He was gone. Purple’s son was gone.

Green stepped away from the airlock's manual controls. He disliked this nasty business, but in this case, everyone who was left had been needed to ensure the remaining crewmates' safety. One person was needed to divert pressure from the airlock and open the door, one had been needed to keep Yellow from escaping the airlock before the doors closed, and two were definitely needed to keep Purple from doing something they were sure he would regret. Something along the lines of freeing Yellow and getting everyone killed.

This wasn't their first mission where an Imposter had killed a coworker. The protocol was clear. If an Imposter ends up on the ship, it has to go. Kill or be killed is the standing law when it comes to the creatures. 

Chances were high that an Imposter would try to sneak onto the ship. Unlike most MIRA crews that were put together early in their training years at the academy, the crew on the Skeld was composed of a mismatch of people who had lost their crewmates over the years to the Imposter menace. Crews were usually formed before anyone could leave the planet to ensure that everyone knew each other well enough to pick up on any sudden changes in behavior. This was the best way to spot an Imposter. However, for a crew where nobody had known each other for more than a few weeks, the risks they were taking were astronomically greater than that of the average crew. Everyone there could have been an easy target. 

Yellow had been Purple’s adopted son. Purple and his husband had raised the boy since he was six. This was supposed to be his first full mission. He had specially requested a run with his father after a practice mission with his originally designated crew went south. The records state that he was one of two survivors who had witnessed a double imposter attack. It also stated that he had been wounded before the last one could be ejected. The young man had seemed eager to please, confident, and maybe a little brash. Had circumstances been different, he could have grown to be a great man. 

That could never be, though. Cyan and Green had seen him kill Black while they were manning the security cameras in their off time. Green had insisted everyone watch the feed so that there would be no question as to what needed to be done. They presented the video information to the rest of the crew in Admin on the holo-screen for all to see. 

They all saw Yellow change. They all saw his body stretch and morph. They all saw his tongue reach out to impale the previous captain. They all saw him EAT Black. 

The evidence was insurmountable. 

“I’m sorry Purple,” Green said softly. He meant it. He felt bad for the broken father, “but we avenged your son, your real son, by killing the beast that took his place. Please, just take some time to think about that.”

Purple, however, was panicking beneath his grief. These people didn’t understand. They didn’t know the truth. That made them dangerous. Fucking MIRA had a history of keeping some of the most important facts to themselves. Like how Imposters weren’t just alien beasts or mindless, hungry monsters. They were people who had succumbed to a sickness passed on by other Imposters. How did he know this? 

Well, he was one of them.

When his boy had been hospitalized after the attack, Purple and his husband had taken time off to help him heal. Luckily, there were only a few deep scratches along the boy’s back that required stitching. The creature’s claws had torn through the upper layer of skin and left gouges in the outermost layer of muscle. His doctors had sewn him up and asked him to stay a few nights to make sure he was healing correctly. 

When the scratches started closing, Purple brought Yellow back home. The boy had been talking non-stop up until that point about how he had heroically shoved his crewmate out of the Imposter’s path and saved her. He went on and on about how big the creature was. How sharp its claws were. How long its teeth were. 

Purple and his husband had listened intently to every story.

Purple’s husband, admittedly, had taken the incident much better than Purple had. While the love of his life had comforted their boy after every trauma induced nightmare and grief fueled eruption into tears, Purple had struggled to keep his own emotions from spilling over in front of Yellow. His husband had been the strong one for the three of them. But even he could not fix a problem that was becoming more and more apparent with Yellow. 

He could not eat. 

The doctors had warned that the lasting effects of shock could affect his stomach, and suggested a few meals to start with. So the two fathers had started out feeding him plain foods that should have been easy for an upset stomach to digest. They gave him simple breads, bananas, apple sauce, and veggies tossed together in a salad. He would eat it, and then promptly vomit in the nearest trash bin.

He kept throwing up everything his two parents had tried feeding him that night.

And the next night.

And the next.

The boy kept saying he was hungry, but couldn’t keep any food down. It broke his fathers’ hearts.They took him to the hospital, but the physicians confirmed that he wasn’t ill. “Perhaps it’s all in his head,” one nurse had offered. 

His husband’s strong demeanor started cracking. He was growing more worried with each failed attempt to get their son to eat. He repeatedly hoped and prayed for their son to keep something down. Anything. 

Purple offered to stay with their boy for the next few days, hoping it would take some of the stress off of his partner. 

Then one night, Purple’s son bit him. 

He had changed. The boy’s body had stretched. Long teeth had hinged down from the roof of his mouth like a snake's. Claws had erupted from the ends of his fingers. He grew at least a foot taller for a heartbeat or two. 

The bite took off a chunk of skin from Purple’s forearm that needed to be wrapped with gauze and treated antiseptic. Not deep enough for stitches, but wide enough that it didn’t stop bleeding for a long time. And yet, somehow, his son started to get better. He complained less about being hungry and stopped throwing up the food Purple gave him. At least for a while.

And then Purple changed as well, and the truth finally clicked into place.

That was months ago. 

Purple was not sin-free. He had thrown out a few Imposters himself, before his son had been hurt. It was a matter of survival back then, and after the change he had felt nothing but burning hunger. It eventually consumed him to the point where he blacked out. When his senses returned, he found that he had killed every member of his old crew in a mindless attempt to satiate his appetite. 

He never told his husband. He couldn’t hurt his partner like that. He also didn’t trust his control over the urges enough to keep himself from hurting the man he loved. So Purple continued going out on long missions to put some space between the two of them. The emotional strain the distance placed on their relationship was worth keeping his love safe.

Yellow knew about Purple’s feeding frenzy. Yellow had been different, though. Purple had been so proud of his boy for holding back for so long. He had held off the hunger with raw meat stolen from the kitchen. He hadn’t wanted to hurt anyone, but good intentions only get you so far.

Yellow had been his little boy, from beginning to end. Now Yellow was gone. They had killed him. The real him. Purple couldn’t go home to tell his love that their baby boy was never coming home. It would shatter his heart into a million pieces.

Purple couldn’t do it. He wouldn’t. 

“I’ll be fine,” Purple mumbled. His head still hung low. His eyes stared vacantly down at the tiled floor.

Nobody really believed him. 

“I… I think I left the biosamples in the Med Bay outside of the refrigeration unit,” White said nervously. He inched closer to the west door and hit the button. It slid open for him. “So I’ll take care of those and give you your space, man.” 

Purple nodded but did not move.

“I think White has the right idea,” Cyan said, motioning for White to wait for her. “Let’s give him some space.”

“How about you two stick together and head out,” Green said, sinking into a stool propped against a cafeteria table. “Brown, you and I can stick with Purple. I don’t know about you, but I wouldn’t want to be left alone after losing someone so important to me. At least, not completely alone.”

Cyan stopped at the doorway. “I… I don’t know… Would that be ok with you Purple? Or would you rather be left alone?” 

Purple didn’t move. He didn’t say anything. Just continued to stare at the floor.

Brown made his way over to sit at the table with Green. “We’ll just sit here with him. We won’t have to talk if he doesn’t want to talk. But someone should really keep an eye on him until he feels a little better.”

Green wasn’t so sure about that. You don’t just start feeling better after losing someone like that. “I don’t think-” An imploring look from Brown made him cut himself off. He sighed. “Yeah. Okay. We’ll stick around until he feels better.”

“We’ll be back to check up on you later,” White offered with a small smile, then he and Cyan walked out the door. The pneumatic controls kicked in as soon as they were gone and the door slid shut. Now it was just Brown, Green, and Purple.

Green leaned back in his chair to watch his crewmate. The man looked so lost. It made him uncomfortable. He just wanted to help the poor guy, but wasn’t sure exactly how to do that. So he opened his big mouth. “Sooooo… do you want to talk about it, Purple?”

No answer.

Green exchanged a look with Brown, who only shrugged. So Green continued. “Not going to lie, I haven’t had kids of my own. I’ve got a girl back on the ground waiting for me, and we’re planning on starting a family, heh, but that’s not really the same thing.”

Purple’s hand twitched against the floor.

“Sorry… I… I know we’ve all lost people to the Imposters though. Me and my sister were on a crew before this. We worked on a ship called the Niix. Her name was Casey, color designation Lime.” Green’s eyes grew misty as the memories played through his head like an old movie. He wasn’t so much speaking to Purple anymore. It was more along the lines of speaking to himself, while Brown and Purple just so happened to be in the room. “We went on 3 different missions together. It was her job as the crew astronomer to map out star paths for us while I worked as a mechanic in the engine room. She was the first victim of our crew to die…”

Purple’s hand twitched again. His head lifted so that he was now staring at the outspoken crewmate with an expression that was impossible to decipher.

Brown perked up at this. “Maybe we should leave him be, Green.”

But Green kept going. “We accidentally ejected an innocent in our panic. Her mask hit the side of the ship on the way out and cracked.” Green shivered. “There’s a reason they don’t go into detail about what happens when you end up outside the ship with a compromised suit. We got the bastard shortly after that. It killed our cook before we could force it into the airlock, though.” He wrinkled his nose. “Ugly fucker. I hate them all. One of these days, MIRA will find a way to exterminate all of ‘em.”

At this, Purple pushed himself up off the ground. Brown shifted uneasily in his seat. “Purple?” 

Green looked up. Perhaps he was getting through to Purple. Imposters had ruined both of their lives, just like they ruined everyone else's. Maybe they could talk about it. Take those emotions and do something with them, like he had done when he saw his sister’s broken neck and vacant eyes. They could take that hate and turn it against the enemy. Help MIRA in this unspoken war. Purple was a biologist. He had an understanding of alien races, unlike Green. He, of all people, could make a difference.

Purple took a step towards the table where Green and Brown were seated. Then another. And another.

“We can talk to MIRA,” Green pushed. “We’ll tell them about how your son was a hero. How that monster had taken him from the world too soon. Everyone on this ship has dealt with Imposter menace in some way. We could tell them everything we know. Maybe if they get enough information on these things they can put an end to ‘em. Then people like us wouldn’t have to lose anyone like that again.”

Purple stopped directly in front of Green. His head tilted, staring down at the other man with narrowed eyes. He said nothing, though. Just stared, until Green began to feel uncomfortable. “Purple? Did you hear me?”

Purple closed his eyes. When they reopened, the irises started shifting. His normally brown eyes began cycling through a multitude of colors. Red, orange, pink, cyan, purple, blue… before finally settling on yellow. Green could only stare dumbstruck up at the man, not sure if his own eyes were playing tricks on him.

“Wh-What the-” 

“They didn’t do shit. You killed my son.”

SHHHhhhk

Purple brought his hand up and slammed it under Green’s chin with outstretched fingers. Claws ripped out of Purple’s glove halfway through the motion, raking up the crewmate’s throat and splattering the ceiling with the other man’s blood as his head was knocked backwards.

“HOLY SHIT!”

Brown shoved himself back from the table so quickly, he knocked over the chair. Green’s breathing came out in gurgles. Blood bubbled out of his mouth and throat simultaneously, cascading like a fountain down his chest. He managed to grab at his neck with one hand before his legs buckled and he fell forward onto the tile floor. His blood pooled red on the floor, spreading out beneath his still form until it edged its way around the soles of Purple’s boots.

Meanwhile, Brown had pulled his electronic tablet out of his pocket and slammed his thumb repeatedly against the Emergency button. Sirens started blaring across the Skeld’s speaker system. Every room was washed in an eerie red glow as the emergency lights kicked in, alerting Cyan and White down in Med Bay. With his other hand, Brown yanked his gun out of the holster at his hip and aimed directly at Purple’s head. His hand was shaking with the effort to hold the gun steady while every nerve ending screamed at him to run. “Y-You’re one of th-th-them t-to?”

Purple swung his head around, tilting it to look at his other crewmate. Yellow eyes flashed behind messy bangs. Brown flinched. Purple was changing before his very eyes. Rips appeared in his suit as his legs and torso lengthened and curled. The edges of his mouth visibly shrank back until his frown was far too wide to fit his face. The bloody claws hung loosely at his side. 

Purple rolled his shoulders as if to help chase away some lasting stiffness. In this form he felt better than he had in months. It still mildly surprised him to slip into this separate form and feel more at home than he had in his normal, more human one. To maintain his old look, in retrospect, had left a strain on him he hadn’t realized was there until now.

Brown, however, felt like he was shrinking beneath the gaze of the devil himself.

When Purple cracked open his mouth to speak, hooked teeth slipped down over his lower lips. His voice came out as a deep, throaty growl. “I have been for as long as you’ve known me. I just haven’t had reason to show anyone until now.”

Purple took a step around Green’s corpse, but Brown panicked. “STAY THE HELL BACK!” Brown dropped the tablet to put his other hand on the handle of the gun and steady it. The tablet clattered to the floor, causing the Emergency alarm to shut off. 

Purple paused. He turned to the airlock at the other end of the room and tilted his head to the other side.

He could hear footsteps.

The door of the cafeteria swung open for a very confused looking White and Cyan. Both of them froze in place as they took in the scene before them. It wasn’t hard to figure out what had happened, considering Green’s bloody form slumped against the floor and Purple’s new appearance as he loomed over a terrified Brown. Still, they stared in disbelief for a moment before it occurred to them to draw their own weapons. 

“Stand down and surrender, Purple,” Cyan barked.

Purple did not move. 

Trying to act braver than she felt, Cyan approached her two other crewmates. They had to eject Purple, but they had to be careful. He could still be volatile, and lash out at any moment. He had already killed, and it was clear he was no longer trying to keep up appearances. She had never seen an Imposter that looked like that before, though. Weren't they supposed to just look like humans? That was supposed to be what made them so good at hiding. 

As Cyan and White reached the table, White knelt in the bloody pool on the floor to check Green. White flipped over Green’s body and winced when he saw the man’s torn neck. He did not even bother to check for a pulse. “He’s dead.”

Cyan snatched one of Purple’s wrists with her free hand to wrench it behind his back. She was surprised when Purple did not resist. He let her yank both arms behind his back and pulled them up hard enough to knock him off-balance. Cyan twisted his wrists and shoved, forcing him away from the table. He did not fight back. The only protest he made was a grunt of pain as she slammed him up against the airlock door. It unnerved her. Why wasn’t he arguing? Why wasn’t he fighting back? Imposters killed until there was no one left. Why wasn’t he trying to take the rest of them down with him? 

"Brown! Get the airlock."

Brown was still left in shock and awe by what he had just witnessed. Yes, people died on ships. He had seen the video of Black’s death, and helped carry back the bodies of his old crew, but never had he seen a murder first hand. Cyan’s words barely registered. He managed to stumble over to the controls to input the safety code for the door, but Purple’s words kept ringing in his ears. ‘They didn’t do shit… You killed my son… For as long as you’ve known me…’ 

These Imposters hadn’t snuck aboard and taken his crewmate’s place. They’d always been there, since the very beginning. Why? And why start killing now? Why wait for weeks? 

Cyan’s words cut through the haze clouding his brain. “BROWN! What are you doing?! Open the damn door so we can eject him.” 

He shook his head to chase the thoughts away. His hand was still hovering an inch above the control screen. “On it.” He punched in the code. 

Whoooooosh!

The doors slid open beneath Purple and he fell forward into the air-lock chamber. Cyan side stepped away from the entrance as the pneumatics clicked and slammed the door between her and the Imposter shut. 

Cyan instinctively turned back to check that White and Brown were still safe behind her. “Ok, Brown. We’re clear. You can hit Eject.”

“Wait a sec, Cyan.” Brown stepped away from the control panel to look through the glass separating Purple from the rest of them. 

She opened her mouth to protest, but Brown waved at her dismissively. White came up behind her to place a hand on her shoulder. “He can’t hurt us from inside there.” She let her mouth snap shut. As much as she disliked the concept of keeping one of those monsters on the ship longer than absolutely necessary, White was right. There was no way for Purple to open the door from within. He was stuck there until they opened the outer door.

On the other side of the glass, Purple was still on his knees facing the opposite doors behind which the cold vastness of space was waiting for him. Brown tapped on the window, but the man did not move. “Purple, I don’t get it. You said you’ve been an Imposter since the beginning…” White and Cyan stiffened behind him. Clearly the same thoughts that had been running through his head were now running through theirs. “Why now? Why wait to attack?”

“There really wasn’t any option for me,” Purple muttered. His tone was still guttural and low, but it cracked under a mountain of grief. 

“Because we found out about your son?”

Purple’s head whipped around. His yellow eyes bore into Brown and made the man’s knees go weak. Purple said nothing more. He wouldn’t have to go home and break the news to his husband. He had chosen his words to his now ex-crewmates carefully. They would start to question what they thought they knew about people like him and Yellow. It wouldn’t be enough, though. MIRA would gloss over this incident like they did with all of the rest. They would probably go back to the plantet and tell his husband that he had died a hero who had been killed and replaced by an Imposter while nobody was looking. They’d say that about their son too, and the truth would stay buried. He was sure the grief would be overwhelming for his beloved, and that was his biggest regret. At least his husband would not have to know about the far more painful reality of the situation.

When Purple didn’t say anything else, Brown turned away from his terrifying yellow gaze. His head hurt. He didn’t need to ask any more questions. He wanted to leave the subject alone and forget about this nightmare. Nobody protested when he reached out to punch the air lock code into the console. “Just like the boy then… you’ll perish.”

Gears clanked and groaned as the air lock began to depressurize. It was finally over. Purple turned back to the doors before him. 

“My boy… I’ll be joining you shortly.” 

On the other side of the glass, the remaining crewmates stepped back as the green warning light above the airlock lit up. The shipped groaned as depressurization came to completion.

The doors clicked. 

Purple lowered his head and closed his eyes. “Farewell.”

Fwoosh!


End file.
